The Millennial Period

by Rev. Herman Hoeksema

Although in this pamphlet it is hardly possible to avoid a comparison
of the views and interpretations here offered with those of the
Premillennial brethren, yet its contents are not chiefly of a
controversial nature. Its chief purpose is to give an interpretation
of a passage of Holy Scripture that may be regarded as difficult, but
which is, nevertheless, part of the revelation of those things that
must shortly come to pass.

These things are revealed, not
indeed in order that God's people in the world might be able to
fore-cast an exact history of the future in every detail, but that
they might recognize in the events of history the things foretold, and
believe that even in the darkest periods of the history of the world
God is realizing His counsel of redemption. It is thus that the
Savior motivates His foretelling the disciples the dark period in
which He must descend into the deep and awful way of His amazing
suffering, in which He must "go away" from them in order
that He "might come again" to them: "And now I have
told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye
might believe"
(John14:29).

Such must needs be the purpose of all prophecy. It does not
satisfy an unholy curiosity. It does not enable us to write the
history of the world till the final coming of the Lord before its
realization. But it is a light shining in a dark place illuminating
all the way of the church through suffering to glory sufficiently for
the people of God to recognize in all the events of history the
realization of God's counsel and, therefore, to walk in hope.

This pamphlet purposes to set forth what light is shed upon the future
realization of God's Kingdom in the world by the well-known passage
from Revelation20.

Following the text of the passage we must consider:

What is signified by the binding of Satan?

What must be understood by the reign of the saints with Christ?

What is meant by the final rebellion of Gog and Magog and their
destruction?

What is Signified by the Binding of Satan?

John writes that he "saw an angel come down from heaven, having
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he
laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and
Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the
bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season" (Rev. 20:1-3).

It is evident that in these words the seer of Patmos describes not
what he saw historically happen but what he beheld in a vision. A
strictly literal interpretation of the text, therefore, is not in
harmony with the nature of the passage, nor is it possible. No one
thinks of the possibility of a literal interpretation, when in Rev. 13:1
the prophet tells us that he "stood upon the sand of the sea,
and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten
horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the names of
blasphemy." It is understood, without difficulty, that all this
was seen by John in a vision. The same is true of
Rev. 20:1-10.
It is not contradicting but correctly interpreting Scripture, when
we say that John did not actually see an angel come down with a great
chain in his hand and the key of the bottomless pit, that he did not
actually see that the devil was bound and shut up in the bottomless
pit, but that he saw all this as it was represented in a vision.

Neither must a vision be interpreted as if it were a mere and
direct foretelling of events as they shall actually happen. It would
not be interpreting but doing violence to Scripture if we should
paraphrase these verses in the following fashion: "Then shall an
angel come down from heaven with the key of the bottomless pit and a
great chain in his hand and he shall lay hold on the dragon, that old
serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and he shall bind him a
thousand years." Such a paraphrasing of the text entirely
disregards the fact that the passage speaks of a vision. The question
is rather: What is the central idea of the vision? What fact does
John here behold as being realized before his eyes? And the answer to
this question is readily given: That the devil is bound by a divine
decree, so that he is prevented from accomplishing his purpose. The
angel coming down from God to carry out this decree, the key of the
bottomless pit, the great chain, the shutting and the sealing, all
these may be regarded as belonging in the form of the vision only; but
they all serve to emphasize the fact that Satan is bound by a divine
decree, securely and effectually, so that during the period of his
confinement he cannot carry out his evil purposes.

The question, however, is not only suggested, but also very
definitely answered by the text, whether this imprisonment of Satan,
this secure confinement of the devil, must be regarded as absolute and
complete, so that he is restrained in all his activities, or as
relative and in part, so that the restraint placed upon him limits him
only in a certain direction and dooms him to partial inactivity only.
To this question the text replies, without a doubt, that the restraint
is partial and with a view to a certain sphere of action. For, the
purpose of the binding of Satan is designated in verse 3 as being
"that he may deceive the nations no more." And in verse 8 we
are informed still more definitely, that when he shall be loosed for a
little season, he "shall go out to deceive the nations which are
in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to
battle the number of whom is as the sand of the sea."

If we take these two passages in connection with each other,
it may be regarded as established: (1) that the binding of Satan is
limited to certain nations, which are called Gog and Magog; (2) that
his confinement prevents him from deceiving those nations; (3) that
the deception, which his imprisonment or the restraint that is put
upon him prevents him from realizing, would otherwise cause these
nations to gather for battle against "the camp of the saints and
the beloved City."

Of Gog and Magog we read in
Ezekiel 32:2ffand 39:1-16. There Gog is the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal ofthe land of Magog. They constitute a vast horde that descends upon
Israel from the north, even from the limits of the horizon, to make a
final onslaught on the people of God. But hailstones, fire, and
brimstone from heaven cause their utter destruction. In the passage
before us from
Revelation 20 these same hordes are called simply Gog and Magog, and now they are
described as living on the four corners of the earth and as coming
upon the camp of the saints from every direction.

Israel is
here to be taken, in harmony with all Scripture, in the New Testament
sense of the word: the vision of the restored Israel of which Ezekiel
38, 39 speaks, has been realized in the church of the new
dispensation. It is "the camp of the saints" and it
is "the beloved city." That is, Christianity in its widest
sense, as it exists and develops in the new dispensation, corresponds
to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. It is represented in the
text as being situated in the center of the earth. Around it, on the
four corners of the earth, that is, outside of the pale of history,
are nations that remain pagan. Although also from them the elect are
gathered into the church, as nations they remain distinctly heathen.
Gog and Magog, therefore, are heathen nations in distinction from
nominal Christendom.

With respect to these heathen nations as
such, then, the passage we are discussing teaches that the devil is
bound in such a way that he cannot marshall them to battle against the
Christian nations. He may, in the very period of his restraint, do
many things, both among the nominally Christian nations and the people
that are called Gog and Magog; he may go about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour; but he is prevented from deceiving those
nations so as to gather them for battle.

And the period of
this restraint is designated as a thousand years. Again, it would be
arbitrary to interpret this number in its literal sense. For, in the
first place, all Scripture attaches a symbolical significance to
numbers, as it does also to colors and dimensions. Numbers such as 1,
3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 12, their combinations and products, represent
certain realities of the Kingdom of God. The earthly relations are
also in their numbers a picture of the heavenly and spiritual
realities of God's covenant. That this is true is evident as soon as
we call to mind that, for instance, our weekly period of time is a
combination of 6 plus 1, labor and rest, time and the eternal sabbath,
the completion of the Kingdom of God; that 7 in Scripture, and
especially in the book of Revelation, occurs evidently as the
combination of three and four, the Triune God and the world, the
perfection of God's covenant; that the number12,
as the product of 3 and 4, is evidently the number of the elect,
which is the reason why there are 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 12 times 12
thousand servants of God that are sealed, 12 plus 12 elders around the
throne of God and the Lamb.

These numbers abound in Scripture,
and more emphatically in their symbolical significance in the book of
Revelation. The whole book is based on the schemes of the number7.
There are seven seals to the book that is opened by the Lamb; the
seventh seal dissolves itself into seven trumpets; and the seventh
trumpet reveals itself as comprehending seven vials. There are seven
golden candlesticks, even as the complete picture of the church in the
world is represented by the seven churches of Asia. But this is
equally true of the number10,
and its products, especially in the thousands. The days of the
tribulation of the church of Smyrna are 10. The number of the
servants of God that are sealed are 10 times 10 times 10 multiplied by
144. The number of those that appear on Mt. Zion with the Lamb, who
have His Father's name written on their foreheads, is 1000 times 144
(ch. 14). The antichristian beast appears with 10 horns. The length
and breadth and height of the New Jerusalem are 12 times a thousand
furlongs. In the light of all these facts, as well as in connection
with the apocalyptic character of the book of Revelation in general,
we are certainly justified in saying that it would be arbitrary to
insist that the 1000 years of Revelation 20 must be understood in the literal sense of the word.

Now, the number itself suggests completeness, a fullness of measure; for 10 is
itself a round number but is characterized by the same feature of
completeness. And the instances in Scripture where the number 10
occurs suggest the same idea. There are ten plagues upon Egypt, the
fullness of the measure of God's wrath; ten commandments, the fullness
of His ethical will concerning us; ten times ten times ten "one
hundred and forty fours," or the fullness of the number of God's
people according to election. So there are ten virgins, ten talents,
and ten days of tribulation for Smyrna's church. The number 10,
therefore, evidently represents the idea of a complete measure of
anything according to the will and counsel of the Most High. If we
add to this that this number 10 in the third power, i.e., the number
1000 points to a great measure of the thing indicated; and that
"years" rather than "days" suggests a long period,
we conclude that the thousand years of Satan's confinement signify a
long period, fully determined by the will and counsel of God, which
must be fulfilled before the devil can be permitted to deceive the
nations that live on the corners of the earth.

That the above interpretation is based on the text itself is
fully justified by the character of the book of Revelation, and is in
harmony with the line of Scripture in general, there is no doubt in my
mind. And this interpretation is also capable of application to
actually existing conditions in the world. The period of the thousand
years I would apply until shortly before His second coming on the
clouds of heaven. That the vision of our passage follows that of the
second coming of Christ in chapter 19 cannot be adduced as an
objection against this view, for the simple reason that the order of
the book of Revelation is not chronological but ideological.
Repeatedly the book follows the development of the world to the very
end from a certain viewpoint, in order then to resume the drawing of
the same picture from a different viewpoint. (Cf. ch.
6:12-16;
11:15-19;
14:17-20;
16:17-21;
18;
19:11-21.)

In our chapter we have the same phenomenon, now from the
viewpoint of the history and end of Gog and Magog. The nations of Gog
and Magog, that live on the four corners of the earth, I would
identify as those nations that in the new dispensation never played a
part in the history of the world, but that are waking up in our very
day. I refer to the numerically overwhelmingly strong heathen world,
to the multitudes of China and Japan, the millions upon millions in
India, the followers of Confucius and Buddha, of Islamism and
Brahmanism; the hordes of Africa and of the islands of the sea. What
it would mean if these nations were permitted to unite and marshall
their tremendous forces against the nominally Christian world may
easily be surmised. The church would have no place in the world, no
room for development. But the devil is bound in this respect. In the
old dispensation he might repeatedly deceive the nations to come
against Israel. Egypt and Assyria, Babylonia and Persia, Greece and
Rome, all had a controlling influence in the history of the world. In
the new dispensation, however, this relation is exactly the opposite.
The Christian nations are historical powers, and Gog and Magog were
hitherto apparently sound asleep. The Prince of this world is
restrained from employing these forces against the church, the beloved
city, the camp of the saints.

What Must be Understood by the Reign of the Saints With
Christ?

But the vision changes its scene. For John tells us that he "saw
thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given unto them"
(Rev. 20:4).
This part of the picture evidently represents a people that
reign. For this is the meaning of their sitting on thrones, as well as
of the statement that judgment was given unto them. For to judge is a
function of royalty; it implies authority to rule.

The question, however, is: Who are these royal people? The
text does not inform us directly who they are, nor where we must look
for their thrones. But in the latter part of verse 4 John plainly
describes these same people as he continues: "and I saw the souls
of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word
of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands;
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." That
the thousand years refer to the same period as that in which the devil
is bound with respect to Gog and Magog is self-evident.

In that entire period these people reign with Christ. And
they are saints in glory before the resurrection of the body,
for the expression, "souls of them that were beheaded,"
permits of no other interpretation.

The Chiliast denies this in order to be able to save his theory of an
earthly millennium and of a separate resurrection of the
saints, but the denial is without support in Scripture. It is
rather strange that he who would always otherwise insist on a literal
interpretation of Holy Writ, in this case looks about for a figurative
explanation. Yet so he does. It is essential to his theory of the
millennium that these "souls of them that were beheaded"
should be transformed into resurrected saints in their glorified
bodies. If he does not succeed in this, his interpretation of the
passage must needs be regarded as false. Hence, he argues that in
this expression we have an illustration of the figure called
"synecdoche," according to which a part must be taken for
the whole. As we speak of so many sails, meaning ships; as we speak
of a hundred head, meaning cattle; so Scripture speaks of souls,
signifying persons. All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt
were three score and ten. In the ark few, that is eight, souls were
saved. On the day of Pentecost about three thousand souls were added
to the church. And there were in all two hundred threescore and
sixteen souls with Paul in the ship. (Gen. 46:27;
I Peter 3:20;
Acts 2:41; 27:37.) Hence, the Chiliast argues, we must interpret the expression
"the souls of them that were beheaded" in the same
figurative way as referring to resurrected persons.

Against this mode of interpretation there are two objections that
prove it false beyond a shadow of doubt. The first objection is that
whenever the above mentioned figure is employed, whether in our daily
language and secular literature or in Holy Writ, uniformly a numeral
is used in connection with it. We can speak of a hundred head, and of
fifty sails, but we do not merely speak of heads and of sails. And, in
all the instances quoted, the Bible follows the same rule. Seventy
souls came with Jacob into Egypt; eight souls were in the ark; three
thousand souls were added to the church; two hundred and seventy-six
souls were in the ship. But in Revelation20:4
we simply read: "and I saw souls." John does not employ the
figure in this instance. The second objection is in the addition:
"of them that were beheaded." What a strange way of
referring to persons in the body, whether corruptible or resurrected,
it would be to speak of the "souls of them that were
beheaded"! The Chiliast must admit this. He must relinquish the
attempt to save his theory of the earthly millennium by thus imposing
his interpretation upon the simple and plain words of Scripture.

And surely the statement in verse 5, that "this is the first
resurrection," does not change matters at all. The Chiliast,
indeed, adduces this clause in support of his contention that verse 5
refers to risen saints, but he is mistaken. The text plainly says:
this is the first resurrection. And the pronoun this
refers back to the statement in verse 4 concerning the souls that
reign with Christ. Therefore, in answer to the question, what is the
first resurrection, we cannot introduce our own preconceived notion,
but we are bound to the text and, therefore, constrained to say:
the reign of the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Jesus is the first resurrection!

Scripture
speaks of the resurrection of the dead in more than one sense. It
refers to regeneration in John5:25:
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that
hear shall live." The same resurrection is meant in Ephesians5:14:
"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." In Revelation20:5,
however, "the first resurrection" refers to the state of
the saints in glory immediately after death. They are delivered from
battle and from persecution and suffering inflicted on them by the
antichristian forces that are always in the world throughout this
dispensation, and they reign with the Lord.

The expression, "the first resurrection," therefore,
does not refer to a separate group of saints that are raised first, in
distinction from the raising of the wicked a thousand years later as
"the second resurrection," but to a state or degree in the
resurrection of the saints.

That this is the correct
interpretation a comparison with the similar expression "the
second death" corroborates. For, "the second death"
refers to the ultimate state of death in hell (Rev. 20:14).
First and second death are, therefore, different stages of death,
not different groups of dead people. But, surely, this establishes
beyond any reasonable doubt, that "the first resurrection"
also refers to a stage in life and glorification. If we may complete
the parallel, we would say that, even as first death is physical
death, so the first resurrection is the glory that follows immediately
upon physical death; and even as "the second death" is the
state of perdition of body and soul in hell, so "the second
resurrection" is the final state of glory after the resurrection
in glory of the body. Hence, "blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ and shall reign
with him a thousand years."

Finally, as an objection against this interpretation the Chiliast
cannot adduce the first part of verse 5: "But the rest of the
dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished."
Certainly, the rest of the dead are the ungodly dead. And it may be
frankly admitted that the form of the expression would almost invite
us to complete it as follows: "then they also shall live
again." But it must be remembered that the text does not say this
and that we have no authority to add to Scripture. Besides, even the
Chiliast would not venture to finish the expression in that fashion.
For, although also the wicked shall have a certain rising from their
graves and receive their bodies again, it cannot be said of them that
they shall live again. Their resurrection will be to eternal
perdition. And Scripture clearly teaches that this going forth out of
the graves unto perdition will take place at the same time, as in
one hour with the resurrection of the righteous (John5:29).
So that the text in Revevelation 20:5 can only mean that, while the
souls of the righteous were seen as living in glory and power, the
rest of the dead had no place in this picture at all and did not live
again. And when they do appear once more, it will be to be sent into
perdition, to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second
death.

These blessed and glorified saints, then, reign with Christ. On earth
they endured suffering for Christ's sake. It was given them of
grace to have the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God in their
hearts and in their mouth and, therefore, it was given them also in
the cause of Christ to suffer with Him (Phil. 1:29). For they had
this testimony in the midst of an antichristian world. That the
antichristian power is here described as it will manifest itself in
its ultimate realization and consummation does not signify that only
the saints that shall live and suffer in the last days, shortly before
the coming of Christ, are included in these saints that reign with
Christ. Essentially the power of antichrist, the beast, and his image
are always in the world. Always the believers have the testimony of
Jesus and the Word of God. They refuse to worship the beast and his
image, and receive not his sign in their right hand or in their
forehead. Therefore, the entire church triumphant in heaven is meant
by these reigning saints. They reign and judge the world with Christ.
It is a reign that commenced in heaven with the exaltation of their
Lord at the right hand of God.

That saints who overcome and endure unto the end shall reign with our
Lord in glory is a common idea in Scripture. "And he that
overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power
over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the
vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I
received of my Father" (Rev. 2:26,27).
And again: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me
in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father
in his throne" (Rev. 3:17).

Concerning this reign with Christ, it is evident that, centrally and
essentially, it is the reign of the exalted Lord Himself, to whom is
given all power in heaven and on earth, a name that is above all
names. But even as the saints, while they are still in this world and
must suffer in the cause of Christ, nevertheless have the victory and
overcome and judge the world by faith in Christ, so shall they
participate in His glorious reign in heaven, when they shall be
completely delivered from all the power of the enemy and be with Him
forever and ever. They shall be given to know His work with regard to
the final realization of the Kingdom of God, even as He knows the
Father's counsel and is found worthy to open the book with its seven
seals. They shall perfectly know the mind of Christ and He shall have
no secrets for them. They shall concur in His judgments of the world
and thus shall partake in them. And they shall rejoice in the full
realization of His perfect victory.

And, finally, this reign of Christ and His saints with respect
to the world is such that almost until the very end the devil shall be
bound with respect to Gog and Magog, so that he cannot deceive them
and gather them for battle against the camp of the saints.

What is Meant by the Final Rebellion of God and Magog and their
Destruction?

But this is not the end. For: "when the thousand years are
expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to
deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as
the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth,
and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and
fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil
that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where
the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and
night forever and ever" (Rev. 20:7-10).

What is here presented in a separate vision had partly been pictured
in a different setting in preceding chapters. We may gather from
chapter 16:12-16 that the devil's deception of the nations that live
on the four quarters of the earth, to gather them together for battle,
will be realized in the period of the sixth vial. This is also in
harmony with the statement in Revelation20:3
that "he must be loosed for a little season." Shortly
before the end of this world this final deception of the nations shall
take place. In chapter 16 we read this: "And the sixth
angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the
water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east
might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come
out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and
out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of
devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth
and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day
of God Almighty. Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that
watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see
his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the
Hebrew tongue Armageddon" (Rev. 16:12-16).
In this passage the reference is, evidently, to the same going forth
of the devils to the nations that live on the four quarters of the
earth, the kings of the whole world, to deceive them and gather them
for battle.

And we learn, besides, that this deception of the nations
through the devil shall proceed immediately from the antichristian
kingdom. Unclean spirits shall proceed from the center of the
antichristian world, and they shall have their influence upon the
nations that live on the four quarters of the earth. It matters not,
now, what is presented by these unclean spirits. They certainly
signify a threefold influence of the antichristian civilization. And
the final result of this threefold antichristian influence will be
that the nations thus affected will unite their forces for war, the
last war that shall ever be fought on earth.

Again, a similar presentation of the same period of history we find in
chaper 17:12-17. There mention is made of ten kings, that as yet have
received no kingdom, but shall receive power as kings one hour with
the beast. The fact that they are kings in distinction from the
antichristian power proper, as well as the fact that their dominion
shall last but for one hour with the beast, that is, "a little
season," suggests that these ten kings are again the same as the
power of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20, and as the kings of the whole world, and the kings of the east that
are mentioned in Revelation 16. If this is correct, then we learn from the passage in chapter 17
that the first result of the deceptive influence of the devil, through
the medium of the threefold antichristian influence, will be that the
heathen nations of Gog and Magog shall join into one great world-power
with the central antichristian dominion. For one hour, for a little
season, the world-power shall realize its greatest ambition, and a
strictly universal empire shall be established, of which also the
heathen, but civilized, nations form an integral part.

However, this cannot last. For ultimately the ten kings shall
hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her
flesh and burn her with fire (17:16). The ultimate result, therefore,
of the deception of the devil through the antichristian influences
upon the heathen nations will be that they shall be gathered for
battle against the very center of the antichristian dominion.

If we combine all these different elements, which have bearing
undoubtedly upon the same historic event of the future, we may come to
the following conception. In the nominally Christian world shall
ultimately be realized the final consummation of the antichristian
world-power, the power of the beast and the false prophet. It will be
an empire in which shall be represented the highest ambitions of man,
and they shall be realized to the utmost. From a purely humanistic
viewpoint it will be a glorious kingdom. And thoroughly humanistic it
will surely be, religiously, scientifically, socially, industrially,
politically. But it will be anti-God, anti-Christ, and anti-church.
The saints that refuse to receive the mark of the beast shall have no
place in that kingdom.

In the meantime, influences shall issue forth from that central
realization of the antichristian kingdom upon the nations that live on
the four corners of the earth. These shall be civilized. They shall
become conscious of their power. And they shall, for a time, join
forces with the beast and the false prophet to form one great
world-empire. But under the influence of the "mission-work"
of the antichristian unclean spirits, they will be, indeed, awakened
out of their prolonged slumber, become conscious of their power, and
quickly adopt the antichristian civilization.

But they remain pagan nevertheless. Though they give their power to
the beast for one hour, for a little season, this cannot last. The
deception of the devil must work out till the bitter end. And they
will ultimately gather as separate forces for the last war, which will
be a world war in the strictest sense of the word. Looking upon the
nominally Christian world (which will in fact be antichristian, though
the church will still exist in her midst) as the really Christian
nations, as the church of Christ indeed, they shall do as the nations
of the old dispensation did with respect to Jerusalem and shall say:
"Let us go up to Jerusalem; let Zion be defiled: let our eye look
upon Zion!"

This shall be their guilt, for their purpose shall be to fight against
the camp of the saints and the beloved city, against God and His
Christ. But it will also be their deception. For, as in the old
dispensation God used the nations in their hatred against the Holy
City to chastise and destroy a Jerusalem that had actually become
Sodom, so He will use the hostile spirit of the heathen nations to
destroy the antichristian powers and eat the flesh of the great whore.
The camp of the saints they will never touch. The people of God shall
look for the coming redemption which shall then be nigh. For it will
be upon this final scene of confusion and iniquity that the Lord will
appear to judgment, destroy His enemies, and deliver His saints to
give them the victory forever !

If we thus conceive of the end of Gog and Magog, it is needless to
conclude by saying that we are living in significant times. A
humanistic modernism claims the right and title to the name of
Christianity — a religion without the Christ of the Scriptures,
without the Incarnation, without the Cross, without the resurrection;
a religion of this world, based on human imaginations rather than on
Scriptures. In the meantime, the power of man develops with
tremendous strides in every sphere of life. And the influence of this
modern spirit is felt far outside of the Christian world. For
modernism has its missionaries. The nations on the four corners of
the world are waking up. The millions upon millions in China and
Japan and India are beginning to realize their power and to clamor for
their own place in the midst of the nations of the world.

No, we do not mean to speak of the day and the hour. But we do
emphasize that God's people must not be deceived. They must know the
times, and know what Israel ought to do at all times and seasons. They
must above all watch and keep the testimony of Jesus and the Word of
God and steadfastly refuse to worship the beast and the image of the
beast.

For blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments. And let us
be of good cheer! For our King is given us of Israel's God! He has
all power in heaven and on earth, a Name above all names! The victory
is ours! "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world!"